This powerful nuanced biography is a moving portrait of Lt. Col. Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, the elite IDF commander killed in the July 1976 Operation Entebbe raid to free 100 hostages held by Arab terrorists in Uganda. Using Yoni’s own poignant poetry and letters, news footage and emotional interviews, Follow Me profiles the life and loves of this passionate and introspective young man who became an icon of Israeli heroism and courage. With his warrior’s heart and a poet’s soul, Yoni’s life is portrayed from his childhood in Israel and America, to his newlywed student days at Harvard and his brilliant military career, tragically cut short at age 30. Follow Me includes interviews with brothers Iddo and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and Yonatan’s widow, Tuti Goodman.

Opening Night Supper Reception and Film are sponsored by LAZ Parking, ZipPark, Cindy & Barry Lazowski, Marcia & Alan Lazowski and Dana & David Lazowski in honor of their parents, Rabbi Philip and Ruth Lazowski.

Mélanie Laurent, the radiant French-Jewish actress of Inglourious Basterds and La Rafle fame, shines as Starbucks-loving twenty-something Justine struggling with commitment and daddy issues in this touching French romantic comedy-drama. This light-hearted portrait of a contemporary Jewish family in Paris tackles thorny father-daughter relationships, ex and new boyfriends, step-families and modern day romance. A lively pop soundtrack, a charming yet neurotic Jewish father Eli, a new baby and a mid-life crisis add to the delightful plot in this stylish film with a lot of heart.

Sponsored by Puritan Furniture Mart, Inc. and Roberta, Bruce and Eliana Singer and Women’s Philanthropy, Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

A secret online friendship between Tal, an Israeli-French teenage girl and Naim, a 20 year old Palestinian boy develops after he discovers her letter of peace - written after she experiences a terror attack - in a bottle washed up on a Gaza beach. This optimistic feature based on the young adult novel by Valerie Zenatti avoids sentimentality and easy answers as the teens exchange emails while political and family tensions mount. Hiam Abbass and Mahmoud Shalaby star in this gripping internet-age Romeo-and-Juliet drama set in a troubled region.

This film is sponsored by Central Connecticut State University and Trinity College Hillel.

Fun, buoyant and energetic, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is the filmed stage show version of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lively and colorful journey through ancient Egypt, starring Donny Osmond, Richard Attenborough and Joan Collins. This classic family favorite has catchy songs, colorful characters, brilliant costumes and dazzling special effects. Members of the Mandell JCC Youth Theatre cast of Joseph will lead an audience sing-along during the film. Refreshments will follow.

Sponsored by Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Memorial Fund/Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford; Rosenberg Orthodontics; Family Room Parenting Center; PJ Library and NextGen/Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

Morad, an Israeli Arab youth severely beaten in his village, suffers from extreme posttraumatic stress disorder. After recovering from his physical injuries he remains disconnected from the world. Just when all hope seems lost, Dr. Ilan Katz recommends experimental dolphin therapy in Eilat. Four years of video and audio case treatment notes combined with rare underwater footage result in a remarkable true story of nature, hope and recovery. It is a miraculous testament to the healing powers of love - between father and son, doctor and patient, boy and dolphin.

Sponsored by HARC, Inc.; Jewish Association for Community Living and Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

Israel’s top film stars fill the sun-baked screen in this modern-day Sephardic Jewish love triangle, blending Moroccan magic, sisterly rivalry, and passionate family secrets. When beautiful Marie dies after being painfully banished for marrying her Arab lover, her superstitious and jealous sister Rahma suspects husband Robert is secretly in love with Marie’s sensual ghost. A box office hit in Israel, this film is accented with an exotic Middle Eastern score and graceful performances.

Mature theme, suitable for high school and above.

This film is sponsored by Sandra Berinstein.

Ed Koch is to the Big Apple as bagels are to lox. The three-time New York City mayor (1977-1989), who passed away February 1, 2013, was ferocious, funny, smart and blunt. He was also intensely private. Koch is a no-holds-barred, intimate portrayal of the world’s most famous Jewish politician as he confronts his mortality and legacy as mayor of this most wondrous city. In candid interviews with the late 88-year-old Koch, news footage, and with a journalist’s eye, Neil Barsky’s sweeping cinematic portrait follows Koch from his modest beginnings as the son of a Jewish furrier in the Bronx, through the turbulent decades of his brilliant political career.

This film is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Kutsher’s Country Club is the last surviving Jewish resort in the Catskill Mountains of New York State and in its heyday was one of the legendary “Borscht Belt” hotels. The resorts were not only a Jewish vacation paradise; they also launched many show biz and sports careers. This portrait of the iconic hotel, which welcomed masses of Jewish families in the 1950’s and 1960’s, is a hearty kosher feast flavored with tasty Jewish nostalgia.

Preceding Welcome to Kutshers – The Last Catskills Resort

An 80 year old Catskills comedienne prepares a final performance with her loyal sidekick.

Sponsored by Diane and Larry Greenfield, Hoffman Summerwood Community, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford with musical entertainment by Jeff Weiselberg.

Cookies, Conversation & Kutsher’s with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford follows film.

In the last bloody months of World War II, the Nazis targeted Jewish children who arrived at Buchenwald in death marches from the east. Narrated by Liev Schreiber, this is the story of four young boys – now aging men– who were imprisoned in Buchenwald. They are among the nearly 1,000 Jewish orphan boys hidden in plain sight and saved from certain death by the camp’s Communist prisoner underground. In April 2010, sixty-five years after liberation, Alex Moscovic, Naftali-Duro Furst, Pavel Kohn and Israel Laszlo Lazar return to honor the memory of friends and their guardian angel, Antonin Kalina, the Czech resistance member who oversaw Block 66. The film’s producer, Steven Moskovic, director Rob Cohen, a Yale University graduate, Buchenwald boys Alex Moskovic and Abby Weiner, of West Hartford, will speak following the film.

Contains mature Holocaust content, for middle school and above.

Sponsored by The Kirstein Family Fund for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford; Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford; JTConnect, Beth El Temple and Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, University of Hartford.

Reel Talk following film

Director: Rob Cohen
Alex Moskovic, former Buchenwald Boy
Steven Moskovic, Executive Producer
Abby Weiner, former Buchenwald Boy
Moderator: Stuart Abrams

This heartfelt Israeli drama follows the story of a Tel Aviv family drawn into crisis after the parents discover their son is secretly a cross-dresser and expels him from home. Years later, when the father is diagnosed with cancer, the family is reunited when the son, now a young woman earning a living as a gay cabaret singer by night and a nurse by day, reappears in their lives. Melting Away is the first Israeli feature film dealing with parents coping with their transgender child. Book meets film when Joy (formerly Jay) Ladin, the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution, speaks about her new memoir and the film after the screening with Idit Klein, Executive Director of KESHET, a Boston-based national Jewish LGBT advocacy group. Joshua Lambert of the National Yiddish Book Center moderates.

Mature subject matter, recommended for high school and above.

Reel Talk Following Film

Invited Guest Speakers:
Professor Joy Ladin
Idit Klein

Moderator: Joshua Lambert, Academic Director, National Yiddish Book Center

Festival Café
Kosher sandwiches and desserts from Shuman Catering will be available for purchase Wednesday April 10, 2013 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Criterion Cinemas, Blue Back Square.

Sponsored by the Krasow Greenblatt Family with additional support from Jewish Book Council and Keshet.

A secret online friendship between Tal, an Israeli-French teenage girl and Naim, a 20 year old Palestinian boy develops after he discovers her letter of peace - written after she experiences a terror attack - in a bottle washed up on a Gaza beach. This optimistic feature based on the young adult novel by Valerie Zenatti avoids sentimentality and easy answers as the teens exchange emails while political and family tensions mount. Hiam Abbass and Mahmoud Shalaby star in this gripping internet-age Romeo-and-Juliet drama set in a troubled region.

This film is sponsored by Fidelity Investments.

An estimated 400,000 Auschwitz prisoners were tattooed with serial numbers. Only several thousand of these survivors are still alive today. Numbered is an explosive, highly visual, and emotionally cinematic discovery of what these faded bluish-grey numbers mean to those who bear them, as well as to their children and grandchildren. Sharp black and white photography, breathtakingly honest interviews and poignant slice of life cinema accompanied by a modern score create an edgy and provocative work of art.

Mature subject matter, recommended for high school age and above.

Before moving to Germany to become a university professor, Shachar plans to propose to Sharon, his stunning and clever girlfriend. His grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, played by Israel’s first lady of theater, Lea Konig, will stop at nothing to prevent him from moving to Germany.

Sponsored by Voices of Hope/JFACT – Second and Third Generations of Holocaust Survivors/ Lisa & Peter Fishman and Marcia & Alan Lazowski.

Invited Guest Speaker: Neta Zwebner-Zaibert, Co-Producer, Numbered

Festival Café
Kosher sandwiches and desserts from Shuman Catering will be available for purchase Thursday April 11, 2013 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Criterion Cinemas, Blue Back Square.

“Why do you Jews want to go into dentistry? You don’t have it in your hands.”

From 1948 to 1961, the years of John E. Buhler’s deanship, a pervasive climate of anti-Semitism transfigured the young lives of Jewish students at Emory University’s dental school. This documentary - which premiered at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia last October and resulted in a public apology to the students - is based on the investigative research of one of these students, Dr. Perry Brickman. Now a retired maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Brickman was suddenly kicked out of Emory University in 1952. The film features his haunting flip camera interviews with fellow students, Emory University President Jim Wagner, and professors Deborah Lipstadt and David Blumenthal.

Dr. Perry Brickman and Emily Harrold will attend and speak with Kenneth Jacobson, Assistant National Director of the Anti-Defamation League following the screenings.

Reel Talk Following Film

Dr. Perry Brickman, Atlanta, Georgia, Film Subject

Moderator: Kenneth Jacobson, Asst. National Director, Anti-Defamation League

Sponsored by Hartford Alumni Chapter of Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity; Greater Hartford Dental Professionals; Anti-Defamation League, CT Region and Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford

Adolf Hitler did not have children, but what about the families of Goering, Goeth, Hoess, Himmler and Frank, names that still evoke horror today? Hitler's Children introduces us to Bettina Goering, Monika Goeth, Rainer Hoess, Katrin Himmler and Niklas Frank, descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime. The film profiles some of the men and women - sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews - who were left a terrifying legacy that permanently associates them with one of the greatest crimes in history.

Sponsored by the Rosalie H. and Jay D. Smith Jewish Heritage Fund, Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, in memory of Rosalie Smith.

Mélanie Laurent, the radiant French-Jewish actress of Inglourious Basterds and La Rafle fame, shines as Starbucks-loving twenty-something Justine struggling with commitment and daddy issues in this touching French romantic comedy-drama. This light-hearted portrait of a contemporary Jewish family in Paris tackles thorny father-daughter relationships, ex and new boyfriends, step-families and modern day romance. A lively pop soundtrack, a charming yet neurotic Jewish father Eli, a new baby and a mid-life crisis add to the delightful plot in this stylish film with a lot of heart.

Sponsored by Women’s Philanthropy, Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

A divorced and doting dad of two precocious kids, handsome Uriel Cohan is a lucky guy when it comes to winning poker games and hot dates. But just as he takes a gamble on getting a vasectomy, his ex-sweetheart Gloria returns to Buenos Aires, raising the romantic stakes. Venezuelan Jewish crooner Jorge Drexler sizzles as the bachelor dad in this bitingly funny romantic comedy with a happy ending featuring a witty Jewish mother, a wise urologist and a band of rock ‘n roll rabbis.

Sponsored by Patti & Benjamin Albert.

Ed Koch is to the Big Apple as bagels are to lox. The three-time New York City mayor (1977-1989), who passed away February 1, 2013, was ferocious, funny, smart and blunt. He was also intensely private. Koch is a no-holds-barred, intimate portrayal of the world’s most famous Jewish politician as he confronts his mortality and legacy as mayor of this most wondrous city. In candid interviews with the late 88-year-old Koch, news footage, and with a journalist’s eye, Neil Barsky’s sweeping cinematic portrait follows Koch from his modest beginnings as the son of a Jewish furrier in the Bronx, through the turbulent decades of his brilliant political career.

This film is sponsored by Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP.

This powerful nuanced biography is a moving portrait of Lt. Col. Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, the elite IDF commander killed in the July 1976 Operation Entebbe raid to free 100 hostages held by Arab terrorists in Uganda. Using Yoni’s own poignant poetry and letters, news footage and emotional interviews, Follow Me profiles the life and loves of this passionate and introspective young man who became an icon of Israeli heroism and courage. With his warrior’s heart and a poet’s soul, Yoni’s life is portrayed from his childhood in Israel and America, to his newlywed student days at Harvard and his brilliant military career, tragically cut short at age 30. Follow Me includes interviews with brothers Iddo and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and Yonatan’s widow, Tuti Goodman.

Film is sponsored by LAZ Parking, ZipPark, Cindy & Barry Lazowski, Marcia & Alan Lazowski and Dana & David Lazowski in honor of their parents, Rabbi Philip and Ruth Lazowski.

Ameer Abu Ria, 18, Israeli citizen and Muslim Arab, is about to fulfill his dream of volunteering for the Israel Defense Forces to serve the country he loves. Considered an enemy by Israeli Jews and a traitor among his own people, how will this charming eternal optimist navigate the thin line between his dual identities? This film follows Ameer on his journey to civic and self-definition as he struggles to be both a proud Arab and an enthusiastic Israeli, citizen of two societies.

Sponsored by Brian Newman, Partner and the Partners of CohnReznick, LLP.

This inspiring documentary filmed in Israel and Colorado follows Tom, Tomer, Yogev and Yinon, disabled Israel Defense Forces veterans—some of whom are amputees—who learn to ski and snowboard in Aspen, Colorado. As participants in Golshim L’Chaim – Ski to Live, a rehabilitative ski program, they go from injured to empowered, challenging themselves physically, free for one week from hospitals and rehab, wheelchairs, war and crutches.

Sponsored by Brian Newman, Partner and the Partners of CohnReznick, LLP.

Morad, an Israeli Arab youth severely beaten in his village, suffers from extreme posttraumatic stress disorder. After recovering from his physical injuries he remains disconnected from the world. Just when all hope seems lost, Dr. Ilan Katz recommends experimental dolphin therapy in Eilat. Four years of video and audio case treatment notes combined with rare underwater footage result in a remarkable true story of nature, hope and recovery. It is a miraculous testament to the healing powers of love - between father and son, doctor and patient, boy and dolphin.

Sponsored by HARC, Inc.; Jewish Association for Community Living and Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

From the Ukraine to You Tube, this lively documentary is an enjoyable romp through the history, mystery, and meaning of “Hava Nagila”, the great Jewish standard played at millions of weddings and bar mitzvahs, sports events and even the Olympics. Funny, deep and unexpected, the film celebrates 150 years of Jewish history, culture and spirituality, revealing the power of music and dance to bridge cultural divides and bring people together. Nostalgic interviews with Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell and Regina Spektor, among others, are blended with campy clips from Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, Elvis and Lena Horne.

“E-Break”, aka 13 year old Eli Furman of Fairfield, Connecticut, competes across the country with a Bridgeport, Connecticut break dancing crew during his Bar Mitzvah year while coming of age in two different worlds.

Immediately following the films, Eli Furman, now 16, and members of United Outkast of Bridgeport, CT will perform live at a closing night HAVA dance party and reception in the Mandell JCC gym with music by Boppers Entertainment and Israeli folk dancing led by Marla Cohen and Steven Elson.

United Outkast and E-Break, LIVE!

E-Break – Eli Furman of Fairfield, Connecticut, will perform live with members of his break dancing crew, United Outkast of Bridgeport, Connecticut. United Outkast is an award-winning team of dancers who have dazzled audiences throughout the country.

Closing Night Film and Hava Dance Party are sponsored by Simsbury Bank; the Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Memorial Fund, Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford and Boppers Entertainment.

HAVA Photo?

Share your family’s best HAVA celebration moment. Send up to two images, (high resoution jpeg only), with your name, contact phone number and short 10-20 word caption including family name and date photo was taken. Submission is your permission to display photos in the Mandell JCC Theater Gallery, online, in publicity and on screen. Send submissions electronically havanagila@mandelljcc.org. Thank you!